Nov. tea output falls 16% due to rain, lower prices

Reuters: Sri Lanka’s November tea output fell 15.9% from a year earlier due to heavy rains and a drop in auction prices, the state-run Tea Board said on Monday.

The production fell for a third straight month in November and it was the biggest drop since May, data showed.

Production in the first 11 months was down 2.7%.

“It is because of the heavy rain affecting the plucking,” S.A. Siriwardena, director general of the Sri Lanka Tea Board told Reuters, adding the full-year output would fall short by 8-10 million kg from the forecast 340 million kg.

“The export revenue also will be 10-12% lower than the target because our main exports markets like Middle East, Russia, and Ukraine have been in trouble.”

Earnings hit a record high of $ 1.63 billion in 2014, up from $ 1.54 billion in 2013.

The island nation’s annual tea output fell 0.6% in 2014 from a year earlier, missing its annual forecast. It rose 4.2% in 2013 to a record 340.2 million kg, surpassing its 2010 peak of 331.4 million kg.

Tea, Sri Lanka’s top agricultural export commodity is one of the main foreign currency earners for the $ 78.6 billion economy.